20 - Sergi Roberto

Surprisingly not shy lately, he is probably at his peak right now, what the fuck is he doing at rb tho

I kind of enjoy seeing him run behind messi and deulofeu...
it's not like he is playing bad so no reason to bench him for semedo

I honestly believe the logic in not playing roberto in midfield is simple, because if roberto gets injured semedo has no backup, so EV is taking it very careful with rotations that and roberto has a low as hell release clause and we need him to resign a contact hence the team wants to make him feel better and useful

Nothanks said:

I kind of enjoy seeing him run behind messi and deulofeu...
it's not like he is playing bad so no reason to bench him for semedo

I honestly believe the logic in not playing roberto in midfield is simple, because if roberto gets injured semedo has no backup, so EV is taking it very careful with rotations that and roberto has a low as hell release clause and we need him to resign a contact hence the team wants to make him feel better and useful

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That's not logical at all. Is Roberto immune to injuries at RB?

Roberto is more useful in CM than RB. Because we actually bought a starting RB this summer. So we don't need to "make him feel better and useful". He is useful.

There's no reason to bench Roberto for Semedo either. Roberto should be benching Rakitic.

Alik said:

That's not logical at all. Is Roberto immune to injuries at RB?

Roberto is more useful in CM than RB. Because we actually bought a starting RB this summer. So we don't need to "make him feel better and useful". He is useful.

There's no reason to bench Roberto for Semedo either. Roberto should be benching Rakitic.

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Roberto is Deulofeu's wingman. Everytime Deulofeu plays, Bob plays RB. They are operating well together.

Dembélé got injured so Semedo has no clear wingman at the moment. That's his problem.

I agree that Bob should play instead of Rakitic though.

behindbrowneyes said:

Roberto is Deulofeu's wingman. Everytime Deulofeu plays, Bob plays RB. They are operating well together.

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Agree.

I also think right now Roberto offers more offensively than Semedo and we needed that yesterday with no Alba on the other side as most of our attacks have gone through Roberto-Deulofeu in 1st half. So I can understand EV decision to start Roberto. And I think he'll continue to rotate in next games. I expect Semedo to start vs Malaga, then Roberto will play against Murcia in Copa (though he could play in midfield there with Vidal getting a chance as RB) and Semedo vs Bilbao.

Roberto offers more offensively since he's been with the team for many years. Semedo is definitely better offensively if anyone ever watched him play pre-Barcelona. In fact his offensive game was his strongest suit more so than his defensive game.

Last year everyone was complaining about Roberto not doing much attacking-wise.

It's impossible for a guy to get comfortable and build a connection when he's benched every other game. It's the same with Denis.

This all might be more about keeping Roberto happy so he renews his contract, which in that case let him play in the midfield. But then again Rakitic is a big name player now for some reason and Gomes is free to get as many chances as he likes without being held accountable for it.

In the end it's going to mess with the team's dynamic where our RB might struggle to settle down and we could lose Denis for a guy who likely won't be here come January or next summer and someone who plays like he's 50 years old.

Alik said:

That's not logical at all. Is Roberto immune to injuries at RB?

Roberto is more useful in CM than RB. Because we actually bought a starting RB this summer. So we don't need to "make him feel better and useful". He is useful.

There's no reason to bench Roberto for Semedo either. Roberto should be benching Rakitic.

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it's logical because if our starting 11 consists of both semedo and roberto, we have no real rotation for rightback
our rightback is one of the most demanding roles, requires lungs of steel with the amount of running required. if we use up our only two options every big game, who will play the rightback in midweek games.
I've been saying it all summer long we should buy a young digne esque rightback
so we can have more freedom with sergi roberto.

Nothanks said:

it's logical because if our starting 11 consists of both semedo and roberto, we have no real rotation for rightback
our rightback is one of the most demanding roles, requires lungs of steel with the amount of running required. if we use up our only two options every big game, who will play the rightback in midweek games.
I've been saying it all summer long we should buy a young digne esque rightback
so we can have more freedom with sergi roberto.

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Alba plays LB which is a position that is just as or even more physically demanding. He played 90% of the available minutes. Keep in my that Alba is an injury-prone player, and he still wasn't rotated despite having lower form than Semedo.

Semedo is perfectly capable of playing the majority of matches in the season and far more than he currently has. He's only played 50% of the available minutes.

No one can predict the future let alone injuries, we are playing it safe by doing the 2 per role rotations.. it's very common to do so, infact i can't really name a manager in top teams that doesn't do this.

if we went with the both in starting 11 and one got injured causing us to have no rotations, you know damn well everyone would blame valverde for not being prepared or some bullshit lol

Nothanks said:

No one can predict the future let alone injuries, we are playing it safe by doing the 2 per role rotations.. it's very common to do so, infact i can't really name a manager in top teams that doesn't do this.

if we went with the both in starting 11 and one got injured causing us to have no rotations, you know damn well everyone would blame valverde for not being prepared or some bullshit lol

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If Semedo got injured Roberto would move to RB. What's so hard about that?

the point in two per role rotation is that when the starter gets injured, the substitute is rested and 100% fit

lets talk worst case scenario (obviously unlikely but why such prevention is worth taking)

in febuary 28 we play Las Palmas away, fine no big deal it's just one of those matches, lets say in this hypothetical we start both semedo and sergi roberto and semedo gets injured... so we move sergi roberto mid game to rightback
4 days later on the weekend we play we play Atletico Madrid with sergi roberto as starting rightback... he plays the full 90
3-4 days later we play midweek in second leg of 16 for champions league
3-4 days later we play Malaga away from home

those tight schedules are what make or break teams for La Liga AND champions league..
we (along with other teams) struggle the most in late febuary / early march because of congestion and having a policy for rotation is more than necessary.

we have a luxury problem right now, having both semedo and sergi roberto as rightbacks is a GREAT "problem" to have right now it wont work long term as one will eventually get upset but we should focus on other problems like rakitic.. pique or suarez.

Alik said:

Alba plays LB which is a position that is just as or even more physically demanding. He played 90% of the available minutes. Keep in my that Alba is an injury-prone player, and he still wasn't rotated despite having lower form than Semedo.

Semedo is perfectly capable of playing the majority of matches in the season and far more than he currently has. He's only played 50% of the available minutes.

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That's exactly what I was thinking. Alba's role looks more demanding bcos he has to make runs all the tine and still track back to help defensively, unlike Semedo who is more of a defensive role and looks more fit than Alba. I hope Alba's injury makes Valverde play Digne more.

Gets moved in midfield and immediately shows class.

Valverde seems to persist with this absurd rb spot for bob, while keeping semedo a great prospect on the bench. The logic eludes me, bob makes instant impact in miedfield and not using that just for the sake of linking up with deulofeu...is absurd. Deulofeu is way to useless and averge to justify bob as rb.

Valverde, wtf man??? Give us a chance..we suck as it is..

those runs tho... he's more dangerous as Cm than he's as RB.